Skip to main content

Hagitani and Miyazaki Win Shibetsu Half


The Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon took place on July 12 in Shibetsu, Hokkaido, with corporate league runners, collegiate athletes and amateur runners all taking to the city streets under breaks in the cloudy skies. A total of around 1900 people entered the event's 39th edition.

In the men's race, Yu Miyazaki of Toyo University won in 1:02:22, the 6th-fastest time in Shibetsu Half history. Kaede Hagitani, a 2021 Tokyo Olympian in the 5000 m, won in 1:13:02 as a step toward next month's Hokkaido Marathon. "This was a good run that helped me figure out what areas I need to work on for the Hokkaido Marathon," she said post-race. "The scenery along the course was relaxing."

Miyazaki, who took 3rd on the opening leg at the 2023 National High School Ekiden while at Ibaraki's Toyodai Ushiku H.S. and anchored Toyo at last fall's Izumo Ekiden, took 27 seconds off the PB he had run at November's Ageo City Half Marathon. It was his second PB in the last 2 months, having run a best of 28:53.82 for 10000 m at May's National University Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier. Further back, former marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki was 8th in 1:03:27.

39th Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon

Shibetsu, Hokkaido, 12 July 2026

Women
1. Kaede Hagitani (Saku T&F) - 1:13:02
2. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead) - 1:19:01
3. Airi Nakamura (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:19:46

Men
1. Yu Miyazaki (Toyo Univ.,) - 1:02:22 - PB
2. Nicholas Kipchumba (Jobu Univ.) - 1:02:52
3. Evans Kibuni (Kokushikan Univ.) - 1:03:05
4. Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) - 1:03:10
5. Yohei Urano (Fujitsu) - 1:03:14
6. Reishi Yoshida (Honda) - 1:03:17
7. Eikichi Kazaoka (JFE Steel) - 1:03:23
8. Kengo Suzuki (Yokohama T&F) - 1:03:27
9. Toru Kubota (Honda) - 1:03:31
10. Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:34


Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is there a way to get deeper results of the Shibetsu Half-Marathon?
July 13, 2026 at 8:58 AM
Anonymous said…
With this performance by Kaede Hagitani I'd be reasonably confident she can make the MGC qualification time at the Hokkaido Marathon. I hope so. I'm glad to see her running again.
July 13, 2026 at 10:19 AM
Brett Larner said…
They haven't been posted yet. I'll update when they're public.
July 13, 2026 at 10:22 AM
Anonymous said…
Thanks mate!
July 14, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more